Fort Augustus Abbey to be turned into luxury apartments

HISTORIC Fort Augustus Abbey on Loch Ness is to be converted into luxury apartments after being bought by a property development group just days before it was to be auctioned for the second time.

The sale for "well in excess of 1 million", was confirmed yesterday by the Raven Group which specialises in the conversion of historic listed buildings. It is the abbey’s third owner this year.

The company secured the 18th century landmark building ahead of it going to auction in Glasgow next Thursday. It was due to be sold by English businessman Brendan Kiely, who bought the abbey for 850,000 at an auction in June.

Humphrey Kelsey, development executive at The Raven Group, said: "Our aim with Fort Augustus Abbey is to restore the building to its former splendour through its conversion into quality residential apartments. We are aware that the building is in a deteriorating state of repair and that it is critical to start the restoration work as soon as possible."

Mr Kelsey said he was keen to involve the Fort Augustus Abbey Preservation Trust, a local body which was unsuccessful in bidding for the abbey, in the development process.

The abbey opened in 1876, having been created from the remains of a Hanoverian fort built by General Wade in 1742. A fee-paying school located there, the last Catholic boarding school for boys in Scotland, closed in the mid-1990s due to falling numbers, while a move by the monks to run the building as a tourism attraction failed.

The abbey finally closed in 1998 with debts 200,000, and the remaining ten monks were dispersed to other monasteries.